Jimmy (8) : "Reading is hard."

2 women sitting on chair in front of table

NOODING

Timeline

Apr 2023 - Oct 2023

TEAM

Gyuho Lee

Gayoung Moon

Gayoung Lee

MY ROLE

Lead Designer

UX Research

Concept Development

3D Prototyping

CMF Direction

Fabrication

Kids don't sit still to read. They move, climb, and treat furniture like a playground. NOODING came out of six months watching how children actually behave, not how furniture expects them to sit. A reading nook built around movement, not against it.

DISCOVERy

diREction

Development

Results

Why We Started

Reading environments have improved over generations. Better libraries, more books, more access. Yet children are reading less than ever. The problem wasn't availability. It was the space itself.

We spent 6 months researching how children actually behave in reading environments, and translated those findings into a furniture concept that works with their instincts, not against them.

Challenge & Constraints

20+ kids. 2 environments. Zero straight answers.

Children don't interview well. Ask a direct question and you get "I don't know," or worse, the answer they think you want. Surveys had their limits, especially with younger kids. So we treated them as a first signal and checked it against what we observed.

Research Strategy

Research first. Watch more, ask less.

We shifted from asking to watching. Observation took priority over interviews, while contextual parent sessions filled in what the kids couldn't articulate.

1° DISCOVERy

90% Said No.

We asked the children this question,

"Have you ever felt that reading can be Enjoyable?"

Watch More,

Ask Less

UX Research

Problem Space

Core Issue

Insight (Spoiler: kids don't read, they play)

At a Glance

Let the Numbers Talk

We surveyed 20 children. The answers weren't surprising. The numbers were.

90%

dislike reading

70%

of children did not visit the library recently

65%

read zero books in a typical month

↑6.5 hrs

children’s average daily screen time

↓15 min

children’s average daily 'paper book' reading time

Behind the Numbers

Numbers tell us what. Research tells us why.

Primary Research

Qualitative & Quantitative Data

Interviews and surveys covering reading habits, preferences, average reading time, and on-site library observation.

Secondary Research

Desk Research

We cross-referenced findings with expert theories on cognitive development by age to define the right target group and scale.

By the Numbers

What the Data Says about Reading

We surveyed 20 children across reading habits, screen time, and library use. The pattern was consistent: books lost, every time, to everything else.

Problem Space

Why Kids Don't Read

3 Reasons

01. Fading Reading Habits

Children are spending significantly less time with books, as static text struggles to compete with more stimulating daily distractions.

02. Restless by Design

Conventional furniture fails to accommodate children's natural movement. When the space doesn't fit the body, focus doesn't follow.

03. Visual Over Static

Children accustomed to dynamic digital media find static books harder to engage with. Without interaction, reading starts to feel like a chore.

These findings point directly to a structural problem within the furniture and spaces themselves.

Core Issue

Structural Limitation

The data pointed to a pattern. Spaces and furniture designed for reading weren't actually designed around the people reading in them.

Findings Sprint

Two issues kept surfacing

Physical and sensory needs ignored

Environments built for adults, not children

➜ The data pointed to one thing: children need spaces that move with them, not against them.

See Survey Details

Beyond

the Page

Structural limitations explain part of the problem.

But the decline in reading goes deeper than furniture alone. Three patterns kept appearing across observations and interviews.

Changing Needs

Children gravitate toward spaces that invite movement and interaction. Static, passive environments don't hold their attention.

Furniture Built for One Posture

Existing reading furniture is built for stillness. Children aren't. One-directional seating that discourages posture changes makes the space feel restrictive before a single page is turned.

Shifting Viewing Habits

Screens demand nothing from children. Books ask for sustained, quiet focus. That gap has widened, and the environment around reading does little to bridge it.

These patterns pointed us toward real voices. Data shows what's happening. People explain why.

insight

Understanding the Real Needs

From Data
to Empathy

Data showed what was happening.

We needed to understand why. So we went directly to children, parents, and experts to find out.

We asked:

How do children actually use furniture day to day?

What makes a reading environment work, or fail?

When and why do children turn away from books?

What shapes a child's focus and comfort while reading?

↓ To find out, we ran three research sessions.

Field observation

Two local children's libraries

Children were observed across two library visits.

Key patterns from 2–3 hour sessions:

Restless by nature

Children changed seats or posture every 2–5 minutes, and switched books or locations within 10 minutes.

Drawn to shelves, not chairs

They stayed longest near bookshelves where they could browse independently. Open chairs went largely unused.

Furniture as playground

They climbed, pushed, and pulled the furniture. Everything was treated as a play object.

Space needs to earn their attention

In wide, open areas, children scattered and lost focus. Smaller, defined zones held them longer.

5 Parents,

5 Truths.

1:1 interviews with 5 parents

Minimal, open layout at home

Parents preferred simple, spacious setups, but children still gravitated toward tucked-away corners.

Playful and free

Children engaged most in spaces that felt loose and unstructured, not curated.

DIY solutions

Most parents had tried rearranging or adding soft elements to create a cozier reading corner.

Stability matters

When choosing furniture, parents prioritized sturdy structure that supports upright posture.

Hard to focus, hard to stay

The most common complaint: children couldn't sit still long enough to read consistently.

3 Experts,

1 Conclusion.

2° diREction

From Insight to Design Principles

Every principle here came from what we observed and heard directly. Patterns that kept appearing until they were too consistent to ignore.

🧒

Ages 4 to 10

Habits form early. Every decision, scale, posture, and material, had to work for a developing body, not a scaled-down adult one.

🤸

Flexible by design

Children rarely stay in one position for long. The seating had to accommodate shifting, leaning, and curling up without feeling unstable or restrictive.

🐾

Following natural behavior

Kids treat furniture like play objects. We worked with that tendency, not against it.

🔄

Adaptable across environments

No two spaces are the same. The design had to work without requiring a dedicated room.

🧩

Shelf, seat, and space as one

These elements rarely work together in existing furniture. Our goal was to merge them into one coherent object that made sense the moment a child saw it.

Design Concept

What exactly does a product that merges furniture and space actually mean?

Should we create a chair without a seat, or one as large as a wall?

The answer was already there in how children naturally claim a space.

A corner.

A gap between shelves.

A spot just small enough to feel theirs.

That's when we landed on the Reading Nook.

What's a Reading Nook?

A compact space that gives children a sense of ownership without requiring a dedicated room. Small enough to feel safe, open enough to avoid feeling trapped.

One object. Three functions: body support, book storage, defined space. By combining them, we removed the friction between wanting to read and actually starting.

3° Making It Real

Defining the User

Body proportions of children aged 4 to 10 used to set the dimensional scope of the design.

The Details That Earned It

At this scale, every choice is visible.

Raised sides, open front.

The point was where to stop closing it in.

I sized the seat to a child who won't sit still,

not one who should.

Storage isn't attached to the chair. It is the chair.

Nothing here tells a child to read.

The shape just makes settling in the easy thing to do.

What We Chose and Why

Colors

Green reduces visual noise and supports sustained focus.

Chosen to help children stay calm and engaged while reading.

Texture

Woven cotton upholstery. Smooth with subtle texture.

Handpicked at Dongdaemun, Seoul.

Base Material

Wood brings psychological warmth to a space.

For children's furniture, that matters as much as durability.

brown wooden surface with white and black textile

Wood Selection

Affordable, warp-resistant, and easy to work with.

Three candidates, one direction.

MDF

Birch Butcher Block

Plywood

FEATURES & SPECS

Structure

Modular wooden frame with integrated storage.

Function

Lower storage designed like a bookshelf for easy access.

Comfort

L-shaped cushioning for flexible sitting postures.

Dimensions

900 W x 690 D x 712 H mm

Width

900 mm

Depth

690 mm

Height

712 mm

Seat Height

350 mm

4° The Results

Here's what we
built, showed,
and learned.

BUILT

Four People, One Saw

Three designers, one craftsman. We handled the decisions; he handled the precision. Weight distribution, structural tolerances, the cuts that actually had to hold, that was his domain.

That split worked. We moved fast on dimensions, scale, and materials without second-guessing the build, and wrapped the full cycle from research to prototype within 6 months.

Cut, Layered, Covered

Three tries. Flip to see why.

The cushion wasn't ordered. It was made. We printed a full-scale template, cut two different foam densities, and bonded them together to get the right feel. The fabric was sourced by hand, shops visited, samples tested, one direction chosen.

Two prototypes didn't make it. The third one did.

Touch Every Corner

Every angle, up close.

Six months of decisions, compressed into one object. Every joint, angle, and cushion started as a guess and got refined until it stopped feeling like one. This is what that process left behind.

SHOWN